At a time when federal budget decisions "involve hard choices and much shared sacrifice," a decision on whether to fund the Planned Parenthood Federation of America "is not one of those hard choices," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

The archbishop of Santa Fe, N.M., admonished unmarried Catholic couples who are living together, those who are not married but are in a civil union and divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment, warning them not to receive Holy Communion.

The Diocese of Wilmington, Del., will eliminate 19 full-time and three part-time positions as it cuts operating expenses and prepares to pay more than US$77.4 million to survivors of sexual abuse by priests.

The president of the Pakistani bishops' conference has called for the arrest of a U.S. Protestant pastor whose decision to burn the Islamic sacred book has caused fury in the Muslim world and the deaths of more than 20 people.

The cloistered Augustine nun who has written the meditations for Pope Benedict's Way of the Cross service said she strived for simplicity to give a voice to children who have been abused in the Church and beyond.

The most effective response to veiled attacks against the Church is one that exposes misrepresentations, states the verifiable truth, explains genuine Catholic doctrine and provides examples from the lives of Catholic saints and martyrs, according to speakers at a Fordham University program.